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Tom Petty reflects on 40 years of songwriting

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Modified: April 21, 2014 at 11:27 am •
Published: April 21, 2014

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Forty years of practice has made songwriting harder, not easier, for Tom Petty.

"As life goes by, you get a little more carefree or distracted by other things and you have to really police yourself — I do — into sitting down and doing something that pleases me," the 63-year-old rocker said. "Plus, I'm trying to do things that I haven't done before and not go over the same ground."

FILE - In this June 16, 2013 file photo, Tom Petty performs on Day 4 of the 2013 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tenn. Songwriting has gotten harder, not easier, with time, says Petty, who will receive top honors from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers on Wednesday, April 23, 2014, for his four decades in music. (Photo by Wade Payne/Invision/AP, file)

The writer behind such hits as "American Girl," ''Mary Jane's Last Dance" and "I Need to Know" will accept the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers' Founders Award on Wednesday in Los Angeles. Previous honorees include Stevie Wonder, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and Billy Joel.

"It's very nice to get an award for songwriting," Petty said. "I'm duly impressed."

His process is much the same as it's always been: Sit down with the guitar and see what comes. When inspiration strikes, "it's a very real magic," he said.

So magical, in fact, that he hesitates to examine it too closely.

"It's really hard to explain because I don't really understand it myself," he said. "I know that when we have time booked, like when we set aside time to make a record, that's when I usually get pretty — I guess I get on the job as far as making sure I have enough songs, you know."

He sits and plays, recording bits here and there. The next day, he listens to what he did and either develops or scraps it.

Touring takes him out of the songwriting groove: "It takes me a few months after a tour to get back into the headspace to write songs."

Petty and his band just finished their latest album, "Hypnotic Eye," set for release this summer. That allowed time for him to check out Jimmy Fallon's recent duet — as Petty — with Stevie Nicks.

"I was amazed by how well they did the Heartbreakers," he said. "It was brilliant. Very funny."

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers also signed on as the headliner of the Outside Lands music festival in San Francisco this August, along with Kanye West.